‘Most sophisticated tunnel in US history’ discovered between Mexico and Arizona
US border officials claim an incomplete tunnel found stretching from Mexico to Arizona could be ‘the most sophisticated tunnel in US history’. The tunnel runs from San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico, to San Luis, Arizona, where it stops short of reaching the surface. It is 3ft wide and 4ft high (1 x 1.3 metres). Smugglers have been using tunnels to get drugs and people across the border for decades.
What not to do in a bear attack? Push your slower friends down in attempts of saving yourself, says the National Park Service
If you’re being confronted by a bear, there’s a few things you should know before running away.As people across the country visiting parks and taking trips to the mountains find themselves in terrifying encounters with bears, the National Park Service (NPS) has offered a few tips on what to do if you’re face-to-face with the furry beasts.The first tip? “Please don’t run from bears or push your slower friends down in attempts of saving yourself,” the NPS joked in a Facebook post Wednesday.The best thing to do to safely remove yourself from a bear confrontation is move away slowly and sideways so you can keep an eye on the bear without tripping. Bears are not threatened when you move sideways, but like dogs, they will chase fleeing animals.
“Do not climb a tree. Both grizzlies and black bears can climb trees. Do not push down a slower friend (even if you think the friendship has run its course),” the NPS added. “Stay calm and remember that most bears do not want to attack you; they usually just want to be left alone. Don’t we all?”Another tip is to identify yourself by making noise, specifically your voice, so the bear doesn’t confuse you for an animal and knows you’re human. While a curious bear might come closer or stand on its hind legs to examine and smell you, it is not threatening.
While bear attacks are rare, their behaviors can be unpredictable and an attack can lead to serious injuries or death, according to the NPS. To avoid an encounter with a bear, hike and travel in groups, do not allow bears access to your food and leave the area if you see a bear.If you are attacked by a brown or grizzly bear, leave your backpack on and play dead by laying flat on your stomach with your hands behind your neck and legs spread. If the bear continues to attack you, fight back by hitting the bear in the face. If you are being attacked by a black bear, do not play dead but instead try to escape to a secure place or if you can’t, fight back using any available object, according to NPS.
Article via CNN
Democratic Donor Ed Buck Faces Four New Felony Charges After Deaths of Black Gay Men
The longtime Democratic donor still faces additional charges tied to the alleged abuses
This article contains details of sexual assault.
Ed Buck, a well-known Democratic Party donor based in California, has long been the subject of allegations that he fatally drugs and abuses vulnerable gay men, the vast majority of whom are Black. Following years of activist outcry, the 65-year-old was arrested last September and charged with giving methamphetamines to a man who subsequently died.
A former West Hollywood city council candidate who donated to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, Buck will face new charges after a grand jury in California hit him with four felony indictments on Tuesday. In the new court filing, he is accused of goading victims into traveling over state lines to do sex work for him, including another man who died at Buck’s home after he gave him drugs.
In addition to these new charges, Buck faces five additional counts, which include a similar claim that he recruited 26-year-old Gemmel Moore to do sex work for him. In that case, Buck allegedly provided Moore with meth, and he died of a drug overdose in July 2017.
Buck pled not guilty to the charges last September.
Buck’s allegedly abusive pattern of behavior dates back years. Federal prosecutors claim that he has drugged and sexually assaulted at least 10 Black gay men, many of whom were facing homelessness at the time of the incident. One other victim, Timothy Dean, has died.
According to the California Department of Justice, Buck identified his victims through the use of social media and dating websites and used a proxy to proposition them to come to his home. After the men arrived at his apartment, he allegedly gave them syringes filled with meth and occasionally injected them, whether or not they consented. In addition, Buck would sometimes drug the men while they weren’t conscious or even give them a higher volume of drugs than they were expecting.
Buck’s 2019 arrest followed repeated warnings by local LGBTQ+ advocates regarding this alleged behavior. Activists claimed Buck’s wealth and prominent standing in political circles should not help him evade accountability. Jasmyne Cannick, who helped lead the call for his prosecution, told The Guardian last year that police finally arrested Buck because they were “pushed by a community of people who were tired of seeing their people dying.”
“This was two years of the black [LGBTQ+] community in Los Angeles and beyond not letting it go,” Cannick said. “It was about damn time.”
Buck is expected to face trial in January 2021, but following repeated delays over the past few months, those proceedings could end up being pushed back once more in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Article via Them
Kanye West Admits His Campaign Is To Hurt Biden
In an exclusive interview, the billionaire rapper says he’s “walking for president” as GOP operatives work to get him on state ballots.
Amid various reports that Republican and Trump-affiliated political operatives are trying to get Kanye West onto various state ballots for November’s presidential election, the billionaire rap superstar indicated, in an interview by text today, that he was in fact running to siphon votes from the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden.
Asked about that directly, West said that rather than running for president, he was “walking,” quickly adding that he was “walking . . . to win.”
When it was pointed out that he actually can’t win in 2020—that he won’t be on enough ballots to yield 270 electoral votes, and that a write-in campaign isn’t feasible—and thus was serving as a spoiler, West replied: “I’m not going to argue with you. Jesus is King.”
West rebuffed various attempts to clarify who was driving his ballot access or strategy and whether it’s being coordinated by or with Republican-affiliated officials. He does, however, appear to have a continuing relationship with the Trump White House. West says that he’s “designing a school within the next month” and that “I’m meeting with Betsy DeVos about the post-Covid curriculum.” (The Secretary of Education’s press office hadn’t responded to a request for comment by the time we published.)
“I like Kanye very much,” President Trump told reporters at the White House yesterday. “No, I have nothing to do with him getting on the ballot. We’ll have to see what happens.”
West’s intentions have come under increased scrutiny this week, following reports by CNN, New York, the New York Times and others, about efforts by GOP political operatives to get him onto several ballots, including states like Wisconsin that could be pivotal in deciding the next president. West has been a vocal Trump supporter, including visiting the president in the Oval Office. Texts from West to me earlier this summer repeatedly ended with the sign-off “Trump 2020,” and a fist raised high. West’s recent actions have also drawn public focus, given his bipolar disorder—and many, including his wife, Kim Kardashian-West, have expressed concern about his mental health.
West did not respond when asked whether he feels he’s being used. When I pointed out to West that the slapdash operation to get him on the ballot, which includes one operative previously arrested for voter fraud and multiple West “electors” from the same address, didn’t feel like a Kanye West production, West replied that it was a “God production.”
In a wide-ranging interview with Forbes last month about his political aspirations, West, who has never voted before, laid out a platform for his “Birthday Party” that included a pro-life plank that alleged that Planned Parenthood was placed in cities by white supremacists, a management style patterned on the fictional country of Wakanda in Black Panther and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. In that interview, West also claimed that he was dumping Trump. “I am taking the red hat off, with this interview.” His reason: “It looks like one big mess to me. I don’t like that I caught wind that he hid in the bunker.”
However, he was reticent to criticize Trump besides that. “Trump is the closest president we’ve had in years to allowing God to still be part of the conversation,” he said.
And West was eager to criticize Biden, and expressed comfort with the idea of doing damage to the former vice president’s White House chances. “I’m not denying it; I just told you.”
Article via Forbes
Juice WRLD’s Posthumous ‘Smile’ Collaboration With The Weeknd Is Here
There hasn’t been much to smile about in 2020, though a new collaboration between the late Juice WRLD and The Weeknd might change that.
The Weeknd teased “Smile” earlier this week, a special tag-team with the rising hip-hop star Juice WRLD, who died last December from an accidental overdose, aged just 21.
At the stroke of midnight, the song dropped in full across all digital music platforms.
On it, Juice raps: “Devil on my shoulder tellin’ me I’ll die soon/ I don’t really want that to impact you/ But I don’t know, maybe I’m just paranoid/ I just want the best for you, I just want what’s left of you.”
As “Smile” arrived, The Weeknd tweeted: “Wish we could celebrate together.”
Juice’s Legends Never Die posthumous album release made a huge debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart last month, scoring the largest week of 2020 for any LP.
The song is the first new music from The Weeknd since the Canadian R&B artist’s chart-topping After Hours album was released earlier this year.
Article via Billboard
This Woman On TikTok Got Pregnant Without Having Sexual Intercourse And Yes, It’s Possible
When Samantha Lynn Isabel was 19 years old, she realized her period was late. Pregnancy crossed her mind, but she didn’t think it was likely, considering the fact that she and her boyfriend had never had penetrative sex. In fact, she’d fooled around, but never had sexual intercourse in her whole life.
Just to be safe, Samantha decided to take a pregnancy test. It came back positive, but she thought it was a fluke. So she took another one. And another. And another. And they ALL came back positive. She went to the doctor, and they told her she was five weeks pregnant.
Before we dive further into Samantha’s story, I think it’s important to go over some sex ed. Samantha told BuzzFeed she thought the conception probably occurred from her and her boyfriend touching each other’s genitals during foreplay. She was also not on birth control.
I decided to reach out to gynecologist Dr. Jennifer Lincoln to get the lowdown on how someone can get pregnant this way.
“Sperm has to get into a vagina in order for pregnancy to happen,” Dr. Lincoln told BuzzFeed. “It doesn’t matter what puts it there — whether it’s a penis, finger, turkey baster, you name it — but once it’s there, it can travel through the cervix, into the uterus, and rendezvous with an egg in the fallopian tube and fertilize it.”
Dr. Lincoln said getting pregnant without penetrative sex is a relatively rare occurrence, but still possible. “With fingering, if some semen is on the fingers that touch or enter a vagina, the amount is likely lower than with penetrative sex. But like I’ve said before, it only takes one sperm that’s in the right place at the right time!”
When Samantha found out she was pregnant, she was extremely overwhelmed. “I did not feel ready to have a child,” she said. “I had dropped out of high school twice due to my anxiety disorder, [but] went back to finally finish. I [also] had intentions of going to college after graduation.”
She considered abortion, but ultimately decided to have the baby. “I was just nervous I wouldn’t be able to give him everything. But he has it all and more,” she said. Samantha’s son, Bentley, is now 5. She’s still with her boyfriend, Alex, and they also have a baby boy named Theo who’s turning 1 next week. And yes, Theo was conceived the traditional way, Samantha added.
Samantha and Alex’s children, Bentley and Theo. To this day, some of Samantha’s family and friends jokingly call her “The Virgin Mary,” she said.
If you’re curious about how to avoid an accidental pregnancy like the one Samantha experienced, Dr. Lincoln has some tips. “Keep the sperm out of the vagina, friends. And use a reliable form of birth control if there’s any chance of something like this happening. Having emergency contraception on hand for accidents like this is also a great way to handle an ‘oops’ moment!”
Article via BuzzFeed
Good Morning America Producer Daisha Riley Dead at 35: Robin Roberts & Michael Strahan Pay Tribute
The Good Morning America team is mourning the loss of “world-class producer” Daisha Riley.
Riley,an Emmy-winning producer who worked on the show for more than a decade, “suddenly and unexpectedly” died, co-host Michael Strahan confirmed live on air Tuesday. Riley was 35 years old. The show did not disclose any further details regarding her passing.
In tribute to her life and work at ABC, where she began as a production associate, Good Morning America honored Riley with a news package about who she was and what she did behind the scenes.
“She rose through the ranks over the years on our show, working on stories that have made so many of you, our viewers, smile and tear up,” Strahan said. “Her legacy lives on in a powerful voice she shared through storytelling.”
“You may not have known Daisha Riley’s name,” he continued, “but if you watched GMA for the past 14 years, trust us, you saw her incredible work, because Daisha loved nothing more than telling America a story.”
Among her many contributions to the show, Strahan recalled the throne Riley ensured was on their set for interviews with the cast of Game of Thrones.
Describing her as a “world-class producer,” a “pillar of GMA” and a “friend to us all,” Strahan said, “She was never the loudest voice in the room, but she was always the smartest. Funny and brilliant, and above all, kind.”
In her own words, Riley shared via her Twitter bio that she was an “Emmy Award winning journalist / Living vicariously through myself / Probably the most talented TV binge watcher you’ll ever meet.”
Colleague Robin Roberts, co-anchor of GMA, paid tribute to Riley, tweeting, “Daisha Riley was a remarkable woman….talented, creative, kind, a beautiful soul in every way. Condolences to her beloved family. Our @GMA family loved her and will be forever grateful to have experienced Daisha’s grace & grit.”
Riley is survived by her fiancé, Tyrone.
As Strahan tweeted, “Sending love to the family and friends of Daisha Riley. Rest in peace.”
Article via EOnline
AT&T tells customers to change their phones or they won’t work anymore
Even recent unlocked phones like the Galaxy S10e or the Nokia 6.1 are affected
Amid an economy-crushing pandemic, AT&T has decided that now is the best time to send a scaremongering email to some customers, telling them that their device “is not compatible with the new network and you need to replace it to continue receiving service.” The email conveniently doesn’t explicitly mention that this will only affect customers as late as February 2022, only linking to that information.
The email’s formatting suggests that the easiest path forward is just getting a new phone via the carrier straight away: It advertises that AT&T makes “getting a new device online easy,” detailing various free and fast shipping options. Someone who just skims over the mail without clicking the red “Learn More” button might conclude they need a new phone right now.
The notice is poorly worded enough to make an AT&T subscriber wonder if it’s a scam in AT&T’s forum, since they own a relatively recent Galaxy S10e. Other customers even agreed that it’s likely not a genuine email until someone could shine some light into the issue, pointing to the support page that AT&T linked to through the “Learn more” button in the email. It details that in February 2022, the carrier will turn off its 3G network, which will make some phones lose voice calls.
You might think that this isn’t a widespread issue since most modern phones support 4G data and calling (or HDVoice, as AT&T calls it). However, AT&T only whitelists a small number of handsets it directly sells to customers for 4G voice calling, and it looks like identical non-carrier phones don’t necessarily work with the carrier’s HDVoice service, like the aforementioned Galaxy S10e.
Interestingly enough, a PDF on the carrier’s website from February claims that the unlocked S10e is supposed to be compatible with AT&T’s HDVoice. We’re not sure if the email was mistakenly sent out to the S10e owner or if the list in the document is outdated (or has never been accurate). Either way, depending on how many handsets AT&T deems incompatible, this email might have gone out to a significant amount of subscribers.
AT&T needs to clarify this — many people already have enough problems in these times of economic uncertainty, and a new phone might not be among the things they want to worry about right now. AT&T could easily whitelist modern non-carrier devices like the S10e and the Nokia 6.1 (and why not even older ones like the OnePlus 5) so they could continue working on the network in 2022. The company should follow up with an email explicitly making clear that genuinely unsupported devices will only stop working in a year and a half, not tomorrow. Let’s hope no one ends up feeling pressured into getting a new phone right now involuntarily.
So there you have it: If you’ve received this email, you have more than a year and a half to upgrade your current phone. And in a best-case scenario, AT&T might even consider whitelisting more devices, which could allow you to keep your handset even longer without switching to another carrier.
For more information, check out our detailed explainer on this AT&T email situation.
AT&T statement
AT&T has provided us with the following statement:
“This email was one of many planned to keep customers informed about the shutdown of our 3G network in early 2022. It should have included the date that certain devices would no longer be supported. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused and will be more clear in future updates.”
When asked to clarify why the message was sent to some subscribers with phones that appear to support HD Voice, the carrier only reiterated that users who “have a device that does not support HD Voice on our network or that requires 3G” should have received the notice.” If you’re still confused about your handset’s fate, AT&T advises subscribers to contact customer care.
Updated to include the AT&T PDF detailing supposedly compatible unlocked devices.
Article via AndroidPolice
